Today’s example comes from my brand new dentist. My previous dentist (who I was happy with) moved away. I was on the lookout for something new. After a recommendation I looked up Centre For Dentistry (CFD) which, from what I can gather, is a national franchise with local practices. My local practice is a relatively new one.

I signed up, got booked in and went for my first appointment.

I was impressed with the practice – clean, friendly, and a couple of personality touches:

The appointment was great, but what I really liked was the follow-up service and a couple of things struck me:

What they’re doing is simple

What they’re doing take minutes to execute

What they’re doing will be essential to survive as competition increases and consumers have more choice

Most businesses don’t do this…

How many times do you ignore the follow-up message?

First things first, the follow-up email.

How many times do you get a text email or phone call after a service?

Take this quick survey and tell us how we did!

Click here to fill out a short questionnaire about your experience…

If you’re like me, you pretty much delete them as they came in. But there was something that caught my eye with the CFD email:

Perhaps it’s because I’m a copywriter, but what I loved is that they weren’t asking for a survey, they were asking for a specific review.

It was an explicit call-to-action that was easy to do, but more than that: I felt that as a customer I was being listened to.

Surveys feel anonymous, I’ve never felt acknowledged of listened to through a customer satisfaction survey

They were brave enough to ask me my to express my thoughts, in public, in my own words (not just tick a number on a scale that could get filed in ‘difficult customer’)

So I did…

And I felt listened to with their reply.

But then…

I’m feeling pretty positive about the whole experience. And then a few days later I receive this in the post:

A card. An actual handwritten thank-you note.

I’m impressed if I get that from getting someone a birthday present so this stood out to me.

My previous dentist did none of these things and I was pretty happy with their service.

But this dental practice went to extra lengths to delight, not just please me.

What’s the pay off?

The result of this simple action is that I’ve told people about it. I’ve recommended other people to the practice, I’ve written a review and this blog.

Obviously content marketing isn’t magic and can’t patch over a crappy product. I enjoyed the service, but their follow-up sequence prompted me to share it more than I normally would.

Which is something to think about. Imagine if you had an automatic, simple on boarding sequence that encouraged say, every fourth or fifth person to review your business. How many would you accumulate over time? How many case studies would you be able to build?

And how many recommendations would be rippling out into your industry?

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About Amy Harrison

I am a copywriter, content-trainer, speaker and filmmaker teaching businesses how to avoid drab business content and write copy customers love to read. You can also find me hanging out and sharing content over on Google+.

Finding a new customer costs around 5X more than retaining an existing one, but so many businesses seem to forget this. Instead of spending that little bit extra time and money making sure they give their existing clients and customers a “wow” experience, they’re too bothered about finding new clients.

Sure, that’s obviously important. In fact, it’s vital. But by not going above-and-beyond for their current clients, they’re leaving a LOT of money in repeat business on the table.

My mentor Dan Meredith put a similar post on Facebook today. He went to a new barbers and was treated to as much free drink as he wanted (and I’m not talking “cheap” drinks either).

He then said that this little touch will make him go back to that barbers next time.

Thanks Tom – great to hear from you again. It’s definitely easy to fall into the trap of getting excited about the shiny and new (customers) and forgetting that the ones who have stayed with you, have high-value and should be looked after.

Now… where can I find a hairdresser who’ll ply me with drinks? I probably wouldn’t care about the haircut in the end. 🙂

Thank you so much for your review and for taking the time to write a fantastic blog post about your experience at Centre for Dentistry. We, at CFD head office, love to hear feedback from our patients equally as much as the team who have served you so well in Brighton. We hope you continue enjoy your visits – there is nothing that pleases us more than happy patients! 🙂